Free Republic

IOWA CITY — Two weeks before Iowa’s high-profile U.S. Senate election, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s campaign may be planning for a recount. Ernst’s campaign filed open records requests this week with at least five Iowa counties, seeking materials that include training manuals, satellite voting locations, names of precinct ballot counters, recount procedures and any communications sent to her competitor, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley. “I think they’re gearing up for a recount,” said Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert, who received the letter from Ernst’s senior adviser Derek Flowers Tuesday. Recent polls show Ernst, a Red Oak Republican, and Braley, a Waterloo...

House Democrats’ campaign arm spent nearly $1.8 million a day on average during the first half of this month. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it raised $8.8 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15. The committee began October with $34 million in the bank but has been spending aggressively, leaving it with $16 million for the final three weeks before Election Day. […] Despite a fundraising advantage, Democrats face tough odds for denying Republicans their majority. Only a handful of races are seen as competitive because once-a-decade redistricting favors Republicans, and President Barack Obama remains deeply unpopular in many...

Meghan McCain might change a few words around, but she's not too worried about how her criticisms of Sarah Palin have aged over the past few years. In an interview with Politico, the TV show host and daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) stood by her remarks against her father's onetime running mate. “You know Sarah Palin, some of the stuff I said, again I would maybe term differently,” McCain said. “But I think the criticism I have said of her is fair." In her 2010 memoir, "Dirty Sexy Politics," McCain wrote that Palin's selection as the vice presidential candidate...

Liberal umbrage-monger David Corn– of the Mitt Romney 47% and the Rand Paul hates Dick Cheney video fame– says the difficulty with making African-Americans angry enough to vote against Republican “intimidation” tactics is that they don’t realize they’re being intimidated… Chris Matthews: What about the attempt to intimidate them out of voting? Corn: Well, that’s true. It’s happening…and when you do that– when people wanna vote or they’re thinking about voting in an election– they do get ticked off and it motivates them. But…they are so disaffected or so distant from this election that they may not even know that...

Walker, Texas Ranger returned to the Lone Star State on Wednesday, but not to fight bad guys. He’s swooped in to lend a helping hand to Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott. “Chuck Norris doesn’t campaign with Greg Abbott,” Abbott’s campaign spokesman Avdiel Huerta said. “Greg Abbott campaigns with Chuck Norris.” “Together,” Huerta added, “they plan to give Texas voters a good roundhouse kick in the direction of their local polling places.” With the first week of early voting underway in Texas, both Abbott and his challenger, Democratic State Sen. Wendy Davis, are increasing their get-out-the-vote activities, and Abbott is counting...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she's been treated differently in elected office because she's a woman. While campaigning for Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado, the Massachusetts Democrat answered with a resounding “yes” when asked on CNN if male senators have treated her differently because of her gender. When asked to elaborate, Warren replied “Nope” twice, but did oblige that she didn't find her treatment surprising.

In the crucial battle for early voters in Iowa that could foreshadow which party has the edge in the midterm elections, Republicans led Democrats for the first time Wednesday, GOP officials announced. The Republicans closed the day with an advantage of 305 of combined early votes and absentee ballot returns, giving them an advantage they have never held in any Iowa campaign. An overhauled ground game that prioritizes early voting is a key part of the Republican strategy to boost state Sen. Joni Ernst over Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley in their close race for an open Senate seat. Republicans also...

Attorney General Martha Coakley is locked in a dead heat for governor with Republican Charlie Baker because she’s struggling to win over the two demographic groups she needs most. Partisan Democrats and women voters formed the backbone of the recent Democratic victories in Massachusetts. But three weeks before Election Day, Coakley is still struggling to close the sale with the state’s Democratic base. Democrats have established a winning formula in recent contests: Roll up big margins with women voters, turn out the party faithful and capture just enough independent voters to allow Democrats’ built-in numerical advantage to overwhelm Republicans. This...

With the midterm elections approaching, Texas senator Ted Cruz penned an editorial in USA Today this week detailing what he’d like a potential Republican-controlled Congress to prioritize in 2015. As you might expect, the list is full of Tea Party staples: repealing Obamacare, cutting taxes, and slashing funding for federal programs. What makes Cruz’s list of Congressional priorities interesting is that it essentially previews what a Cruz 2016 presidential campaign agenda might look like–and it’s not pretty. As Ted Cruz’s multiple trips to Iowa have suggested, Texas’ junior senator is all-but-confirmed to be running for president in 2016. Though his...

When Tina Brown was Newsweek’s editor, a magazine cover heralded the “Obama Conquest.” Now he’s just the creep in the corner office who keeps women nervous. ... There’s a word for guys who hide out in their offices; bark at underlings while barking at underlings, then, worst of all, blame everyone around them when those promises aren’t kept. The word is “weak,” and women don’t like it any more than men do.

You know what this means, don’t you? Right: Colorado’s ripe for the picking by GOP nominee Mitt Romney two years from now. C’mon, it’s been hours since I trolled you guys about Romney 2016. I held out as long as I could.Obama’s currently rocking a robust 40/56 favorable rating in Colorado, a state he won twice. Mark Udall’s rating: Almost identical, of course, at 40/54. There’s a perfect example, actually, of why O is now shouting from the rooftops that Senate Dems are his loyal toadies who’ll go on carrying his water for the next two years if reelected. Nothing’s...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Real estate mogul and conservative provocateur Donald Trump has a concise, clear message for 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney: You “blew it” in the last election, so don’t even try to run for president again. “No. I don’t think he should run. He had his chance and he blew it,” Trump told Breitbart News during a phone interview on Tuesday. “He had a great chance of winning. He should have won. That was an election that frankly should have been a much easier election than the probable 2016 candidate Hillary. That was an election that should have been won...

Michelle Obama is being urged by her husband’s true believers to move to California when she leaves the White House and to pursue the US Senate seat expected to be vacated by Dianne Feinstein in 2018. The oldest member of the Senate, Feinstein, 81, has strongly suggested this will be her last term, Richard Turley will report in Orbmagazine.com on Thursday. The first couple haven’t said where they’ll go when Barack Obama leaves office in 26 months, but Los Angeles is the leading contender. “Barack could golf year-round, and Michelle could emerge from his shadow after 20 years and retake...

The government watchdog group Judicial Watch is announcing that they have come across evidence of plans for massive voter fraud set to take place in the lead up to the 2014 midterm elections. Judicial Watch has been involved in the fight against voter fraud across the country, specifically in North Carolina, which is where this voter fraud is planned to occur. A lawyer for the state of North Carolina sent a letter to Judicial Watch, informing them of remarks made by a speaker at a recent NAACP conference in the state. The speaker was encouraging audience members to deliberately mislead...

To save the Republic, we must come together to defeat the Democrats. A weak Republican is better than any Democrat, because the Democratic Party has been taken over by Anti-American, ultra liberal elements. Thanks.

Currently, Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont are the lone Independent members of the Senate, but their caucus could double in size with victories by Independent candidates Larry Pressler in South Dakota or Greg Orman in Kansas. Pressler, a former Republican senator, is trailing in the three-way race behind Republican Mike Rounds and Democrat Rick Weiland and is seen as having little chance of winning. However, one recent SurveyUSA poll shows him within three points of Rounds. In Kansas, Orman is in a statistical dead heat with Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts, according to recent polls....

In light of recent attacks in Canada on soldiers, why are the Guards at Tomb of Unknown Soldier still carrying unloaded weapons.

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R) has a new ad in the Kentucky Senate race that zeroes in on the demographic of voters he thinks are mostly likely to be wooed by his opponent, Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes: Young women. In the ad, young women make the pitch that it is Grimes who looks down on them, by implying they need the government's help to get ahead. "Alison Lundergan Grimes wants me to think that I'm not good enough... That I couldn't get a job, unless Washington passed more laws...That I can't graduate college, without raising your taxes... She...

One reporter’s opinion isn’t the end-all, be-all of political analysis. But as a respected, Boston-based reporter, Andy Hiller’s contention that Brown won the debate last night is worth listening to nonetheless. “Shaheen lost the debate because she had to spend so much time on the defensive, explaining the president’s policies on Ebola, Obamacare, ISIS and immigration,” he said. “She was much more effective in the second half when she directly challenged Brown.” “But Brown won,” he continued. “He never looked uncomfortable, he has cable network level communication skills, and in this debate the issues were on his side. He wasn’t...

Wednesday Senator McConnell’s race against Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes looks a bit tighter than it did a few days ago, when we suggested that McConnell might begin measuring for drapes in the Majority Office. For one thing, the latest survey of the Kentucky contest finds McConnell and state Secretary of State Grimes virtually tied. The Bluegrass Poll puts McConnell at 44 percent, and Grimes at 43, with 5 percent for a third party candidate and 8 percent undecided. For another, the Democratic Party and the Grimes campaign are throwing money at ads in what looks like a last-month push...